Bearcats Improve to 4-2

The Cincinnati Bearcats' record improved to 4-2 after a 69-57 victory over the winless USC Upstate Spartans.

Despite the win, Head Coach Mick Cronin was not pleased with his team's performance.

"I wasn't happy at all with our effort tonight," Cronin said. "I thought it was probably the worst game we have played"

USC Upstate came into the game averaging nine assists and 16.6 turnovers per game. Against the Bearcats, they committed just eight turnovers and had 13 assists. USC Upstate's opponents this year have shot over 50 percent from the field, but the Bearcats managed to shoot just 45.8 percent for the game.

In the first half the Bearcat's play was altogether uninspiring. They couldn't get anything going on offense and they trailed for several minutes. The lead changed hands a total of six times in the first half.

Coach Cronin said he thought Adam Hrycaniuk was the only one who played hard in the first half. Hrycaniuk scored nine points and pulled down eight rebounds in the first half. He finished the game with 13 points and ten rebounds, his first double-double of the season.

"I don't care about my individual performance. I care about our team and we didn't do a good job today with our defensive game," said Hrycaniuk "With all respect to our opponent, we should have won the game easier than we did. We had a lot of turnovers and we didn't play hard and I don't think that it was a good game for us."

The Bearcats did play a little better in the second half. They opened up a 20-point lead after going on a 13-0 run with 10 minutes to go in the game. A string of four straight threes for USC Upstate allowed them to cut the lead to 11 with a little over six minutes left in the game but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way.

Coach Cronin said he thought Larry Davis was the one bright spot in the game. Davis came off the bench and helped get the transition game going in the second half. He scored 12 points in the second half and he ended up with 15 for the game.

"Larry Davis helps us in a lot of ways," said Cronin. "He can make plays on his own. When the other team plays good defense he can still beat his man and get in the paint. He did that a couple times tonight. I couldn't be happier with Larry."

Deonta Vaughn led the Bearcats in scoring with 19 points. He hit 5-8 threes and dished out nine assists while committing just one turnover. Cronin, however, was not happy with Vaughn's performance. He said Vaughn needs to be more consistent on the defensive end and more of a leader.

Next the Bearcats will travel to Birmingham, Ala to take on the UAB Blazers at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday Dec. 1st.